Show HN: Say Cheese - a cross-browser compatible webcam API | Hacker News Reader

Show HN: Say Cheese - a cross-browser compatible webcam API

leemachin.github.com

66 pointsFuzzyDunlop15 comments

Author here. I started this thing off as a bit of a jumble of incongruous features (take pictures, take pictures of just parts of the image, etc. etc.), and have since been whittling it down to two core components: getting a webcam feed up and running; and giving you the option to capture images from it.

Instead of adding more features before 'shipping', I probably deleted a load instead. Didn't need 'em.

Does it work with mobile browsers?

I've not tested it (due to not having a phone with a front-facing camera), but I'm not confident there's support for it yet.

Very cool. I like what you've done. Nice and minimalist.

No demo in sight, would love to see this working in a small demo. :)

Edit: Tried this but it isn't working: http://jsfiddle.net/fPTTz/5/

The link is for the demo, but the webcam won't show unless you allow it in the browser. I'm using Chrome and a yellow permissions bar pops down for me.

Does anybody know what the stats are for how many users generally have a webcam either on their computer or attached? It seems the only way to know is to actually use their camera either via HTML5 or Flash, or to look at user agent and infer from the OS, but that wouldn't tell you about attached webcams.

It would be a useful stat to know before adding webcam-related functionality into our site.

If someone doesn't have a camera on their laptop/desktop, I would still bet on them having them on phone if they have a smart phone. I hope iOS supports getUserMedia() soon.

On top of that, I think cameras have been standard on laptops for several years now. That fact coupled with the fact that most computers don't get more than 4-6 years of use leads me to believe that for many demographics the percent of attached cameras is probably pretty high. People with desktops are less likely to have attached cameras, but desktops largely went out of fashion with consumers a few years ago when the laptop became powerful enough for most consumer uses.

All in all, I'd say that cameras are probably on the computers and phones of well more than 50% of the population that uses the internet daily. The only exception would probably be work desktop machines.

Does anyone know the timelines for non-flash cross browser webcam access?

getUserMedia is still pretty young, but I was under the impression that Firefox would have it next version. No idea on IE.

Compatibility table here: http://caniuse.com/stream ...though it has no idea on them either.

90% penetration will not be for at least 4-5 years, if that.

Thank mostly IE for that, But also Safari and a host of mobile browsers.

Why 4-5 years? That seems like an awfully long time for an API that is pretty well defined. If it takes that long it can only be because Apple is deliberately avoiding building support for it.

Because enterprise. Go look at IE8 stats right now. Keep in mind IE10 does not support this, so ask yourself when nobody will even be left on IE10.

The Author wrote a blog post for sample usage with Sinatra and Mustache

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4822993

Hmmmm could you do the same for microphones?

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